Are your Maccabean Jewish Cavalry Knights??

 Now this  surreal statement has stuck in my head ever since the question was posed to me several years ago at a show in Reading which I no longer attend - various reasons but aside from  the travelling it was mainly because the venue smelled  mostly of old jockstraps and wee wee - a somewhat stronger version of what Americans sometimes call "Locker Room lilac" . If that whiff was in the sports hall Gawd knows what the locker room actually smelt like!.
 But the reason it sticks in my head is its  historical  stupidity -well no   of course not   the institution of Knighthood wouls not exist for almost another millenia- but of course it was a statement made by a Games player who had no idea  outside his chosen rulebook  and didn't give a monkeys about  how thick he sounded.
 So once again I come around to our "Image problem" . I still maintain that much of this is our own fault.We do ourselves no favours .
 Whilst other hobbies also have image problems especially those which, like us suffer from "Geek in his bedroom" syndrome  or as I once heard it put by a lady
 "45 and still living in his mothers attic" (though this was aimed specifically at a bunch of unwashed GW freaks I do know what she meant) I think there is a problem.
 Wargamers often seem to make a fetish of having no image at all   I'd go further enjoying the "anti-image" - see my post  In Vogue-  but I would also note the regular appearence of "builders bum" at shows and the Oxfam shop dress sense of many of our bretheren- not that this last is confined to our hobby at all  but chaps, there are kids about put your arses away PL- ease-   and run a comb through the unruly locks- if you have any. .
 Model railways - a  far more intricate hobby on average than ours BUT with roughly the same entry level costs- a basic "train set" will cost about the same as a basic army  about a ton or a bit less if in smaller scales  does not always seem to have the same "baggage" as it were. after that entry its up to you how far you go of course but the model railway chaps I've met do seem to actually give a damn If such as . Pete Waterman and Rod Stewart-  those denizens of the Pop music world who   are both model railway men and feel no shame thereby - both have extolled the virtues of their hobby on primetime telvision  they why should we feel any nervousness  about our hobby?.
 Yet in our world its not like that-
 I know a couple of BBC journos who wargame but neither advertise it much and many years ago I aquired a collection of 20mm Les Higgins and Douglas some of which had belonged to a minister of the crown who allegedly got rid of the lot in case it harmed his career.
 There does still seem to be some kind of self made stigma here. despite the fact that our hobby has grown significantly.  Growth has its downside unfortunately mostly of the "dumbing down" variety which on some levels has become much worse since the "It's only a game" lobby aquired more influence- as it has since the 1990s- and increasingly today we see rules refered to as Games rather than rules for a given period so FOW is a WW2 Game Saga a Game  and so on ad nauseam. This is of course  is the GW  influence- especially as several of the major "games companies" are run or staffed by EX GW dudes. This goes a long way to "make official"   the trivialisation of  what we do- If its only a game then the History and Study and indeed research tht some of us do becomes - in some eyes pointless ,trivial and nerdy . Consquently why should we take ourselves even remotely seriously ? After all you are only rolling dice and pushing games markers about.

 Think of the areas where our hobby crosses paths with other modelling based hobbies such as Military Modelling or Railway Modelling . Yet I've heard it proposed vey ernestly that Wargamers are in no sense modellers- that may be true for the rich dudes who just throw money at the job and buy all their stuff either off the shelf or to commision but for most of us modelling -even at a basic level -is part of the hobby. Paint your troops base your troops - assemble and paint this tank or  that building - you are model making.
 I think perhaps part of the problem is that we have allowed the "it's da gamin' innit"   lobby  too much gabbin' room  with out sufficient replies, magazine editors may be afraid to upset their readership perhaps or in one case at least their owners who are of the games lobby  - I don't know- can't answer that for sure as always I merely observe and perhaps take the p***

Nevertheless I do find it somewhat perturbing that we seem to do this to ourselves
 I wonder why this is?

 I can think of several reasons some , all or none of which may be  or may not true in some, all or none of  chaps heads but that is between them and their ...ahem brains ...

1/. You are so insecure about your hobby that you  trivialise it to compensate
2/. Has our hobby become so introverted that it doesn't give a damn- it is the Geek in the bedroom???.
3/. Do you think what we do  should be trivial and infantile in order to attract a new audience which isn't capable of entetaining  more complex ideas?
4/. Are you simply a lazy git  who can't be bothered to use his brain?

Of these points 3 has a laudable aim - attracting new bretheren is never a bad idea  and introducing new chaps to what we do may be a tad difficult- but do we have to assume that they are   thick and  should we patronise them ?.  After all the kiddies seem to understand the complexities of Games Workshop  and I flamin' don't! One of the MAJOR problems I have with FOW(other than the fact that its simplistic and bears no resemblence to any WW2 action I've ever read)  is its patronising tone- other rules do this to a lesser extent- Black Powder for instance. There is now an unwritten assumption in some quarters  that your poor benighted customer is so dumb that he has  either never read a book or has to use his fingers to follow the long words. Now whilst this may be true (see point 4) and   the popularity of these sets would seem to support this- its not very nice or polite  to tell 'em so - well not too often anyhow! Not only that. gentle reader. but there are still plenty of chaps out there who have not fallen for this load of tripe- even if they use some of the offending rulesets-
 There now often seems to be a major disconnect between  the hobby as it is often seem- at shows and in some magazines-(or rather  perhaps at it is portrayed) and its historical roots  or even many of its grassroots players . Back in the  chaps Like Young Wise Grant et all knew stuff they were to a greater or lesser extent Historians even the fictional Callan was to be seen reading "The Campaigns of Napoleon" - even though he was an MI5 assassin.
If we see what we do as trivial then why shouldn't others?
 If many of our bretheren appear unwashed and/or socially awkard why would you wish to be associated with such?.
 Now to put this in context- none of the non wargamers I know have any  sense of weirdness about me selling toy soldiers for a living- or at least I've never detected such- a bit of disbelief perhaps on occaision- "you amke money out of that ? "  has been said to me more than once but also "what a fasxinating line of work to be in"
 I find it easy to explain the history and modelmaking side- less easy .to be honest. to explain the gaming bit- especially as the  peurile and sometimes nasty GW games are  often the only contact the public are aware of with miniatures  based games. To many out there both within and without out hobby there is no apparent difference between  what we do  and GW . That there should be some obvious distance is to me a no brainer. I really dislike the dystopian ethos of workshop 's games background the so called "lore"  some of it really sets my teeth on edge- especially as it is aimed at children (though its adult workshop freaks that really do my head in)
 So dudes what do we do about this- if anything?

Getting really "into" a period

How do chaps these days get into a new period- with all that gamsey trash about how do they know (assuming they care) that they are getting it as right as they can.
 When in days of yore I was more of a collector and modeller than a pure wargamer- still am up to a point-  one read the books . There was even, I recall , a discussion in the pages of Mil mod about "fidelity to source"  meaning  getting it right according to the sources available for a given uniform or type of warrior. Given that there were and still are  differing  sources  for some uniforms at different times this is perfectly undestandable.
 For me its much the same trying to sort out a"new" period- not that there is any such thing really as I've had a go at most periods in my time and even those I don't currently have armies for I've probably got a book or two. I might saell armies whenI get fed up with them but never the books.(I only ever sold the books for a given period one- ACW- regretted it ever since- even bought some of them again) .
 As readers of previous posts may be aware I've recently dusted off those few Late Medieval units still in my collection with a view to re-activating those armies. I last had armies for the Hundred years war in the mid Nineties the old Hotspur range  but sold those one around 1997. Nevertheless  I still have the books- A dog eared Penguin copy of Froissart . Jim Bradburys study of the Medieval Archer Ian Heaths "Armies of the Middle Ages"  Oman of course and Colonel Burne  a couple of Ospreys but to be honest much of the stuff is a bit out of date- especially Oman and Burne- scholarship has moved on . So I needed to update. Over the intervening years I'd bought a few volumes-most notably Strickland and Hardy "The Great Warbow"- an absolute cracker this- but despite that I still felt a bity short on up to date info. So I added a few volumes- Juliet Barkers study of the Agincourt campaign Matthew Bennets Osprey on Agincourt and a couple of others.

The "Medievals" I already have. the Knights are  the Earl of Oxford and his retinue as at Poitiers. There was an Earl of Oxford at Agincourt- but not this one.

 At this point I haven't yet painted another figure- well  only half a dozen or so -  but one of the things I "re-realised"  is that "Medievals" is not one period but many - like "Ancients" only more complex so a simple example- The Battle of Poitiers was fought in 1356 , Agincourt in 1415- 59 years apart. So up to a point  having troops for Poitiers and using them for Agincourt would be like using Marboroughs army for the Seven Years War or Napoleonics for the ACW. Not quite so bad as things didn't change so fast and the archers are very similar indeed but I'm sure you get my point.  If you are going to get into a period surely you want to know who did what to whom  How and what with  Oh and what sort of trousers -if any was he waering when he did it ?. If you don't want to know that then what are you fiddling about at?
Idiot books- nee "Army Lists" however do this kind of stuff all the time and I've  seen all sorts of travesties on "Medieval" wargames- though not recently - the period seems to have gone out of fashion as Henry Hyde recently remarked- but 13th century  stuff rubbing shoulders with 15th century was nor unusual back in the day- even did it myself. Now I know better.
 My point here is simple- Army lists and Ospreys do not an Historical Wargamer make.

Patience is a virtue... NOT

There are times- few and far between- when this game gets right up my nose. Just recently its been pretty bad in this regard.
Like most chaps I work five to -six days a week. More if I've got a show on . Five if I can get away with it - usually five and a half. EU directives mean nothing  35 hours- that'll get me to Thursday morning in a bad week- and that's starting Monday. So far this month - its the 21st  I've worked 21 days- now not the full 8 hour shift  every day its true. I did manage an afternoon off  earlier in the month and most of the last two Sundays off and I didn't do a massive amount last Saturday- I was playing a wargame- (Shock Horror ) but at the very least I have to check overnight emails and run off any orders on my temperamental printer every day otherwise the queue can gwet a bit long and the amount of emails I have to deal with a bit  tedious..
 Nevertheless deswpite the hours my wife and myself put in its not enough for some. The number of very impatient dudes is rising steadily. I blame Amazon and their Ilk- You know,  big outfit, mail order , several warehouses couple of thousand emplyees, 24 hour delivery  if you are lucky.
 Now increasingly chaps are expecting the same service from  me and my wife and 1 stockroom and the local post office. - But Don't expect to pay for it.and don't understand  the idea of the queue or that other chaps buy stuiff too.. Now these chaps are a tiny minority the vast majority understand how this wiorks but when a fella in France orders his gear on a thursday and is asking where it is the next tuesday  I get a bit vexed or a fella orders wednesday and is giving me earache monday morning its a tad extreme. There always seems to be an assumption that THEY are the ONLY customer.
 Now as a general rules we'll try to get stuff out within 72 hours- can't be more precise than that as it depend when in a given week so stuff ordered over the weekend- thats Friday to Sunday will usually go out Tuesday buit if we are busy it may take a lttle longer- you can only pull  proceess and wrap so many orders a day as well as answering enquires - fending off bloody silly cold calls (THAT takes more time than it should ( how many times a day do I have to say **** off) Others will often go out Thursday but again it depends on how big the queue is and what ever else needs to be done. For instance- this afternoon its photos and copywriting for my next magazine advert- 2-3 hours -  if I'm lucky
 The age of instajnt communications is not all  whine and roses ( I choose my words carefully) Just because its on the internetand you can see it instantly  doesn't mean  I can Star -Trek like beam it into you postbox instantly. In the old days chaps would wait at least a week to 10 days before calling- most still do  but sometime you just wonder about the decline of patience...
 Mind you as always If I can't take a joke I shouldn't have joined.....

Landrovers

Sonn to be added to my slowly growing 15mm modern range will be these fine landrover variants. They are such that a simple painjob can make them anything you kije from  the 1960s to well now really . The short wheelbase will do duty in civilian police and military roles all over the planet ad to a slightly lesser extent will the long wheelbase variant. You will be able to choose softop or hardtop and there is a box body

for the LWB variant as well. Ade has done a cracking job . These will of course go with the Rhodesians, Falkland War British  BAOR- again using the soon to be released Falklands Brits. Various African nations of course. Tons of civilian and quasi military usage. The box body variant gets to be an ambulance.
 More of the falklands range are now being sculpted- Mortars 50cals Milan as well as Infantry  weapons and command packs for both sides. As for vehicles Scorpion Sabre and Scimitar variants are all under construction as well as- a bit further down the line this -a 1 tonne Landrover. 
 Hope to have these landrovers available in time for Smoggycon- if not a bit sooner.

Shine on shine on....

Finally finished some more shiny dudes. So here are a few pictures.

Shiny French Guard Horse artillery- Crew Stadden30mm Gun Hincliffe. Note- the lad at the front seems to be having bother getting it in straight.

Capitane Laglosse- about to stick his telescope in his eye !

Almost a unit - Stadden 30mm with a couple of Minot .

Its been a while since I've added anything to the intermittant "Shinyloo" retro project but I've managed a few figures over the last few weeks- though it seemed I'd never fuinish those Horse artillery what with all the other stuff going on at the same time. I wouldn't mind but I've now aquired a fair collection of old 30mm Napoleonics for this project so we'll see where it leads . Cavalry next I think- but other stuff in other periods and scales first.

Russian Quickie....

No not  a vodka based cocktail discovered in a dubious nightclub but simply a couple of pics of Drabants new viking sets painted by Nick Bokarev. I'll have castings of these by the end of the month with luck- and certainly in time for Smoggycon along with the new Normans and re-supplies of  the rest of this expanding range.

The Command group.

The Archers.

...In Vogue this month....

 Well Donnington was really rather good. The car engines sounded fantastic the kharsis wern't quite so insalubrious as last year and I sold some solderis so all in all a win win . Oh and there were a few nice games- not that I had much time to see 'em.Aside from Steve Bedfords nice Medieval  Jousting game and The Stonewall grouips Flodden (lots of OG figs on that one) Oh and Border Reivers Batlle of Trafalgar square  I didn't really see a lot..
Mind you I almost wore out the old vocal chaords over the weekend what with  about 3 zillion blokes wanting to talk to me on various subjects- need a pint or two just to cool 'em down.
 However now I'm back at home- and its taken me over a week just to get the workload below bottom lip level.
 So I thought I'd take a little time for a blog....
So here I sit before my keyboard ... and well ... mind in neutral. Work  has not allowed a great deal of painting  recently and to be honest such has been the  well "pressure" of late that I get sick of the little lead gits
 MAN SHALL NOT LIVE BY WARGAMING ALONE.

This is hardly surprising when one considers that over the years it has been the norm to trivialise what we do - even. or perhaps especially, amongst ourselves. But there you go I'm not sure other specialist hobbies do this in the same way- Military modellers don't. Model Railway chaps certainly don't.
 I've recently checked out some past magazines- one from 20 years ago and one from 15  years ago. Neiether were perfect but both had more actual content- despite fewer pages than many of the current offerings- mind you one did have a dreadfyully embarrasing photo of WW2 re-enactors- massively

overweight paratroops... Jump lads.....  AAARRRGGGHHHH SPLAT!!! 

So its hardly surprising that I find myself reading other things.. Private Eye. Vanity Fair, Vogue, and in case you just think I read these last two for the Lingerie adverts think again . After all a gentleman has to be abreast of the times in  terms of art, photography books etc-  and yes Fashion , Now to be truthful it was a bit of an accident. My wife Carole is a bit of a Fashionista- this Devil really does wear Prada and Karen Millen and Vivien Westwood  to name but 3. So it pays me to be aware- just before I  get the Paul Smith .
 Nevertheless- aside from splendid stuff on Art photography(and anything I can learn about photography is  fine by me)  and some cracking book reviews  there was a piece on scent-  in this case how a woman likes a man to smell... So apparently Chocolate is ok so is Vanilla  but  Dockers Armpit is definitely out- Not that the lady author Susan Irvine  put it that way of course bit it caused me to think.
 God knows how many times I've encountered chaps in our hobby who could do with reading this I thought. The number of chaps who need really NEED  to stand closer to the soap- or indeed in the same room- is still a significant percentage of our bretheren... and the odd whiff of  Chanel Pour Monsieur or Dior Eau Sauvage  wouldn't go amiss either. Apparently chaps spend over 530 million quid on "fragrance"  per year  so how come no more than a quid and halfs worth ever gets through the doors of the average show.
 Chaps we need to "image up " - at least some of the time... Don't we....